The Post Ignores the Reason for Increase Homelessness Fighting back against de Blasio’s hopeless homeless policies (NYP) You cantoofight City Hall. Indeed, folks in Maspeth have halted Mayor de Blasio’s plans to open a 115-bed homeless shelter in their quiet residential neighborhood. Then, in last week’s Democratic primary, they ousted Assemblywoman Marge Markey over her feeble response on the issue. The mayor’s folks aimed to convert a Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, set to open Oct. 1. Queens lawmakers and residents sued to block the move last month — and the furor prompted the motel’s co-owner to tweet that the deal is off.City Hall insists the plan will still go forward — because it needs somewhere to put the ever-rising homeless tide. And turning hotels into shelters is a key part of its answer.But, as we’ve said before, it’s all a hopeless task as long as Human Resources Commissioner Steven Banks — who spent decades suing the city to create new rights for the homeless — leads Team de Blasio’s response. The Post recently found that the number of homeless persons sheltered at hotels had risen 50 percent since February to nearly 4,000 — and to over 60,000 in city shelters. And The New York Times reported that families are again sleeping overnight at city intake offices — something Banks fought as a Legal Aid lawyer 20 years ago. There has been a veritable explosion in the street homeless population as well as homeless families in shelters. The vacancy rate at city shelters for families with children is less than 1 percent. Team de Blasio’s desperate response includes paying to send homeless to their families outside the city and providing rental subsidies to homeless families willing to relocate out of town. But that’s not stemming the tide. Without a coherent homeless-prevention strategy, and a serious “tough love” approach to those claiming to be homeless, the need for more places to warehouse people will keep growing — and angering communities. Maspeth won’t be the last neighborhood to fight City Hall to a draw — or oust unresponsive elected officials.*

Media Tells Us That Homelessness Increases But Protecting Developers Will Not Tell Us Why

The number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18 percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly 60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.

de Blasio Fights A Neighborhood Over the Homeless He Created With the Help of His Developer FriendsThe co-owner of a Queens Holiday Inn slated to become a homeless shelter said he wants out of the deal because community opposition is too much, but City Hall sources said the plan will go forward and the opening only delayed a few weeks, the Daily News writes.

By Supporting 421-a and Not Enforcing the Law Against Airbnb de Blasio is A Bully Against the Homeless Victims

No one home at CityHall on homeless (NYDN Ed) There’s still more devastating evidence of the vast chasm that often exists between Mayor de Blasio’s promises and his performance. Although de Blasio had vowed to be the mayor who finally found humane solutions for homelessness, results have been abysmal. There’s still more devastating evidence of the vast chasm that often exists between Mayor de Blasio’s promises and his performance. Although de Blasio had vowed to be the mayor who finally found humane solutions for homelessness, results have been abysmal. An audit, uncontested by the department, depicted management failures that trap families in squalid temporary housing at extraordinary costs. If the conclusion sounds familiar, that’s because de Blasio’s Department of Investigation found equally awful conditions back in March, prompting DHS to commit to fuzzy improvements. Additionally, Stringer found that the administration failed to ensure that families got services, paid for by taxpayers, that are supposedly designed to help them find permanent housing. Although de Blasio identified homelessness as a priority, the report makes clear that no one in City Hall exercised basic management oversight.The DHS assigned a grand total of 14 workers to the monumental task of overseeing the well-being of 12,000 families living in more than 150 apartment buildings, hotels and other quarters. Did the mayor not notice such a paltry staff deployment? Was City Hall’s management chief, Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, on the case at all? Did it escape both men that DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, let go last week, was relying on shelter operators for assurances that all was a-OK at hell-hole $3,200-a-night digs? Stringer’s auditors inspected 101 randomly chosen shelter households. They found rats, roaches or other vermin in more than half. They found children living in fire-damaged quarters. They found broken faucets and showers, and a toilet that remained kaput after repeated flagging for repair.

Did the mayor not notice such a paltry staff deployment? Was City Hall’s management chief, Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, on the case at all? Did it escape both men that DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, let go last week, was relying on shelter operators for assurances that all was a-OK at hell-hole $3,200-a-night digs? Stringer’s auditors inspected 101 randomly chosen shelter households. They found rats, roaches or other vermin in more than half. They found children living in fire-damaged quarters. They found broken faucets and showers, and a toilet that remained kaput after repeated flagging for repair.Why bother helping families with apartment hunts, when landlords left and right are illegally rejecting lease applications from the homeless without repercussion. By the thousands, families remain needlessly stuck in shelters, their numbers growing once again.

Despite the Silver and Skelos Trials the Times and the Rest of the Media Still Covering-Up the Effects of the 421-a Program

Here is Some Proof Beyond the Silver Trial for the NYT to End the 421-a Program Destroying Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers Lives

de Blasio Admits Market Forces Causing Homelessness . . . Cuomo Extends War With Cuomo to Affordable HousingOne of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing, The Wall Street Journal reports: * The Times writes that Cuomo and de Blasio need to set their unresolvable issues aside and that Cuomo should respond to the mayor’s affordable housing plan with a similar or bigger commitment that delivers the support New Yorkers need: * One of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle this week, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing.de Blasio: "The market dynamics are forcing people out faster than all of our tools can compensate.”

Bill’s de Blasio'shomelessness crisis (NYDN ED) Bill de Blasio came into office with a single-minded solution for homelessness: shut down dirty, dangerous shelters and use the savings to secure permanent housing. After The New York Times documented the harsh life of a young girl in a fetid city-run shelter, the then-mayor elect said: “We cannot let children of this city like Dasani down.” Now America’s champion of progressives is reckoning with breaking that vow. Meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board on Thursday, de Blasio made the extraordinary admission that he cannot keep up with the tide of people seeking housing assistance: “What we’re having a hell of a time with is. *

New York Cityis planning to add more housing for homeless adults and children fleeing domestic violence, the latest effort by de Blasio’s administration to deal with a homelessness problem that has persisted as housing costs in the city have continued to soar. One Exception the Hotel Unions NYC Mayor de Blasio defended his administration’s four-month-old law curtailing hotel conversions into residential space amid a legal battle with the powerful Real Estate Board of New York. “We obviously think the bill was appropriate,” the mayor said. * With two key rezoning efforts in De Blasio’s affordable housing plan facing opposition from many of the city’s community boards, the Daily News’ Juan Gonzalez writes that the mayor should consider taking control of the Battery Park City Authority from the state to increase funding for affordable housing: * Construction of 55 teeny-tiny micro-apartments – an experiment approved by former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg as a potential solution to the city’s housing crisis – is nearly complete, with 60,000 people applying for one of the 14 “affordable” units.

New Yorkers Needed A Poll to Be Taken For de Blasio and Bratton to See the Homeless Mess

Mayor de Blasio’s still in denial on the city’s homeless mess (NYP ED) Mayor de Blasio declared Friday that the real mistake was that City Hall “did not explain to people well enough what we were doing to address homelessness.” This, the day after Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s stunning statement that the administration fell down by “not validating what we all were seeing.” “For a period of time,” Bratton said, the administration wasn’t “admitting what everybody was seeing and feeling, including myself, in my neighborhood.” In truth, both men this summer downplayed what was happening in front of everyone’s eyes and — ahem — noses. When The Post’s reporting on quality-of-life woes exposed outrageous violations by vagrants this summer, the mayor declared we were “well-known for fear-mongering.” In August, he insisted, “We’ve had a reduction in street homelessness” — pointing to a one-night survey done four months before on one of the coldest evenings of the year. Bratton wasn’t a whole lot better. His reaction to Post photos of John Tucker urinating in the middle of a West Side street? “He’s an extremely emotionally disturbed individual . . . and so all the attention is actually exacerbating his condition.” Once polls showed the public was seeing just what The Post was reporting, the mayor had a spokeswoman “explain” that the rise began in the Bloom­berg years.

* Despite de Blasio's moves to more than double funding for unsheltered homeless people, that might not be enough as the population appears to be growing faster than the city's efforts to address its needs, Politico NewYork reports:

105,000 HOMELESS NYC STUDENTS...(NYP) * NYC homeless population reaches historically tragic number (NYP) The number of homeless people in city shelters has exceeded 60,000 for the first time in history, official data revealed Wednesday. There are now 60,017 individuals being put up by the city — 36,463 adults and 23,554 children — according to the Department of Homeless Services’ “daily report” posted on its Web site.* 60,000-person question: At what point does Bill de Blasio reassess his failing approach tohomelessness? (NYDN Ed) Seen through the mayor’s distorting ideological lens, the fact that a record 60,017 men, women and children went to bed in city homeless shelters Tuesday night shows both that New York wouldn’t dare deprive those who seek living quarters a place in this city and furthermore prevented even greater numbers from streaming in. He implicitly rationalizes as inevitable a steady upward swell into shelters, as escalating rents and a crush of population growth sets whole swaths of low-income New York adrift, unable to afford housing. Will de Blasio similarly stay the course if and when the number of people living in homeless shelters — many merely hotel rooms without kitchens — hits 70,000? 80,000? More? Coherence and consultation would be far preferable to de Blasio’s mad scramble, which started with the wrong assumption that shelters would shrink and then resorted to hotels as a quick fix. But the goal should be to build fewer. The mayor must accept, as agonizing as it is, that families living doubled up with others will have to find, with the city’s help, solutions other than shelter.